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July 27, 2007

How to Detect and Deflect a Spammer

I've had an outbreak of spam comments at WDIK? lately. There was a string of obvious spam about musical instruments for sale, so I added the word "yamaha" to the banned word list. Promptly after that I was besieged by unscrupulous plumbers so I had to do the same thing with "faucet." (In TypePad go to Control Panel then Site Access to ban words.) That put an end to most of it, but I suspect I'll have to continue to ban certain words on a regular basis. (Meanwhile, anyone who mentions "yamaha" or "faucet" in a comment will be flagged. Apologies to motorcycle enthusiasts and my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Faucet.)

This morning, a more insidious spam method showed its ugly face. Someone named "jackee" posted a comment on a recipe for Three Mushroom Risotto. She supposedly tried it and liked it, but used red wine instead of white. I immediately posted an encouraging reply, as I tend to do, then thought "hmmm...." I checked the link attached to the name: Yep, a website that sells wine. But still: jackee could be a real person who tried the recipe and just happened to sell wine. (Yes, I know, one of us is born every minute.)

So I checked my stats at Sitemeter, and discovered someone from an IP address in Karachi had Googled the string: "Name required + typepad.com + blogs + white wine". Obviously someone, in this case some marginal English-speaking computer-wielding Pakistani, had been hired to spam blog posts that mentioned wine. (Teresa has a few comments that thoroughly suss this poorly paid occupation.)

I decided to see if anyone else had been spammed using the same Google search, and sure enough, at Chez Pim I found "jackee" had left two comments. Seems she did a lot of cooking last night, with, what else, white wine. There was also a comment at another site, proclaiming the joys of white wine and high tech gadgetry. (I prefer red wine with my high tech gadgetry, but what do I know?)

I deleted "jackee's" comment and my reply, regretting I'd been taken in for even a second by an evil, albeit underpaid, spammer.

I don't want to get ugly, and start moderating comments, or requiring a TypeKey account. I hate sites that make me remember my Blogger account, since I signed up long ago and can never remember which of my creative names and passwords I used. (And I know they use Google now, but that's even worse, since I have several Google accounts associated with other ventures.)

From now on, anyone who posts a comment linking to a site that sells something, unless it's someone I know and something I endorse, will be considered a spammer, and not only will I delete your comment, but I'll also put a curse on you and your nether regions that will make you wish you'd never learned to type. (I can do this, you know. Just ask Tony in Chicago.)

Comments

How to Detect and Deflect a Spammer

I've had an outbreak of spam comments at WDIK? lately. There was a string of obvious spam about musical instruments for sale, so I added the word "yamaha" to the banned word list. Promptly after that I was besieged by unscrupulous plumbers so I had to do the same thing with "faucet." (In TypePad go to Control Panel then Site Access to ban words.) That put an end to most of it, but I suspect I'll have to continue to ban certain words on a regular basis. (Meanwhile, anyone who mentions "yamaha" or "faucet" in a comment will be flagged. Apologies to motorcycle enthusiasts and my kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Faucet.)

This morning, a more insidious spam method showed its ugly face. Someone named "jackee" posted a comment on a recipe for Three Mushroom Risotto. She supposedly tried it and liked it, but used red wine instead of white. I immediately posted an encouraging reply, as I tend to do, then thought "hmmm...." I checked the link attached to the name: Yep, a website that sells wine. But still: jackee could be a real person who tried the recipe and just happened to sell wine. (Yes, I know, one of us is born every minute.)

So I checked my stats at Sitemeter, and discovered someone from an IP address in Karachi had Googled the string: "Name required + typepad.com + blogs + white wine". Obviously someone, in this case some marginal English-speaking computer-wielding Pakistani, had been hired to spam blog posts that mentioned wine. (Teresa has a few comments that thoroughly suss this poorly paid occupation.)

I decided to see if anyone else had been spammed using the same Google search, and sure enough, at Chez Pim I found "jackee" had left two comments. Seems she did a lot of cooking last night, with, what else, white wine. There was also a comment at another site, proclaiming the joys of white wine and high tech gadgetry. (I prefer red wine with my high tech gadgetry, but what do I know?)

I deleted "jackee's" comment and my reply, regretting I'd been taken in for even a second by an evil, albeit underpaid, spammer.

I don't want to get ugly, and start moderating comments, or requiring a TypeKey account. I hate sites that make me remember my Blogger account, since I signed up long ago and can never remember which of my creative names and passwords I used. (And I know they use Google now, but that's even worse, since I have several Google accounts associated with other ventures.)

From now on, anyone who posts a comment linking to a site that sells something, unless it's someone I know and something I endorse, will be considered a spammer, and not only will I delete your comment, but I'll also put a curse on you and your nether regions that will make you wish you'd never learned to type. (I can do this, you know. Just ask Tony in Chicago.)